


shadowkat | Vengeance - BTVS meta on episodes Beneath You and Selfless

by shadowkat67



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Comics), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Episode Related, Episode: s07e02 Beneath You, Episode: s07e05 Selfless, Fandom Allusions & Cliches & References, Literary References & Allusions, Meta, Vengeance Demon(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-29
Updated: 2009-08-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22408300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowkat67/pseuds/shadowkat67





	shadowkat | Vengeance - BTVS meta on episodes Beneath You and Selfless

In 1994, I had an interesting experience in the Kansas State Senate that not many people get to witness. I stood on the floor, trying not to look uncomfortable, listening for two, possibly three hours as the Senate debated the re-instatement of the death penalty in Kansas.  
Kansas had not had the death penalty since around the 1960s - in which a moratorium had been placed on it. Below is a link to a site that tells you in depth about Kansas and the death penalty.

<http://www.aclu.org/capital/moratorium/10620prs20041221.html>

The argument I heard on that Senate Floor was in some respects similar to the arguments posed in the Buffy episodes Beneath You and Selfless, as well as the argument posed in the BattleStar Galatica mini-film RAZOR. It was also similar in some respects to the arguments I heard in my own country and had inside my own head, and with my friends online and off after the events of 9/11. 

Xander Harris has been and always will be the perfect "everyman". He is the voice of the Greek chorus in Buffy. The normal Joe. There's a reason Xander has no powers, Xander doesn't sleep with Buffy, and Xander is often watching. He is in some respects the viewer and the writer. Xander thinks with his heart, not his head. He reacts to what happens emotionally.  
It is in some respects a role reversal, normally or in most superhero mythologies - the woman is the chorus or the emotional heart of the series, not here. Here, Xander is the emotional heart. He also reflects for Buffy - what the everyman would think. How society views what she is doing. Xander is rules, boundaries, and the end zone. Xander looks at the world simply, doesn't see the nuances, and as Anya points out, always sees what he wants to see.

Anya/Aud/Anyanka represents Buffy's desire for _Vengeance_. Anya has always made things simple. People are their actions in Anya's head. They are defined solely by what they do. As Aud - she defines her existence by breeding rabbits and selflessly giving them to her neighbors and being a good wife to Olaf, as Anyanka - she defines it by being the best vengeance demon ever - wracking vengeance on men who scorn women, regardless of whether they deserve it, regardless of the degree or intent, or the situation. She demonizes the people not the act, and in doing so, becomes a demon herself. She, as Buffy states, chooses to become a demon. When Xander stands her up at the altar, Anya's first impulse is to make him pay. It makes sense, because that is how she met him to begin with - as the result of Cordelia's desire to make Xander pay for cheating on her with Willow - even if it was little more than a passionate kiss.

Anya's view is not unlike many people in society's view - you pluck out my eye, I pluck out yours.

In the episode _Beneath You_ \- Anya is struggling to become Anyanka again, to go back to being the vengeance demon she once was. But the power she is weilding scares her a bit. It has lost its appeal and as a result she is struggling with the demon community as well. She tells Buffy and her friends, that she's a demon, they are human, she plays by different rules now.  
But, she sees the change in Spike before they do, and it is why he hits her. She sees the soul and is bewildered and amazed that he did it. She, alone, catchs that he is not demon, there is definitely a man in there. Also, when Xander gets her to withdraw her curse on Ronnie, turning him back into a man, Anya retorts to Xander's comment that she did the right thing, with compassion towards Ronnie.."tell him that." Just as Spike states to Buffy in regards to Ronnie..."Poor Ronnie." Both Anya and Spike react to Ronnie, not Nancy, but Ronnie with compassion.

Buffy and Xander in Beneath You, are struggling as well - as is Dawn. They want to see demons. It's easier. Makes things simple. When Spike tells Buffy he has changed in Beneath You, Buffy says but she's not sure what into to. And when he enters her home, she tells him everything about him is wrong. When she looks at him in Beneath You, touches him, fights him, all she sees is his act in Seeing Red. She does not see him. Any more than Nancy sees Ronnie. Ronnie literally becomes the Sluggoth Demon that Nancy sees. Spike is juxtaposed with that demon, as Anya is with Nancy. Nancy is flirting with Xander and discussing ex's. Anya is discussing cheating men and exe's with the women at the Bronze, one of which had been Nancy. And when the episode starts - in the car, on the way to school, Xander and Buffy discuss Anya and make light of her vengeance activities. After all, these people deserve it, right?

At the end of Beneath You, after Anya turns Ronnie back into man, things change dramatically. The tone of the episode shifts from Nancy/Buffy/Anya as the wronged parties, to well Xander,Spike and Ronnie. Anya tells Xander that she's doing it because he left her at the altar, none of this would have happened if it weren't for him. And Xander replies -" sooner or latter, Anya, that stops working." You have to own your actions. You can't blame me for who you are. Or the choices you make. Sure I was wrong to stand you up, I regret it every day.But. And same deal with Nancy and Ronnie, when Anya turns Ronnie back, Nancy is horrified, she is before then - calling them freaks. We see that Nancy is far from perfect. And no, she did not deserve Ronnie's abuse. But Ronnie did not deserve to be turned into a worm either. He is not a worm. It is not that simple. As Anya states to Xander - it's not that simple. Spike too reacts to Ronnie - it is when Ronnie is turned back and Spike realizes he's hurt a human, in a way he has stabbed the pole through himself, metaphorically speaking. He reacts as if he has. And is shattered. He can no longer pretend to be the big bad he once was, the demon that Buffy and Xander want him to be. That he wants to be. Because things were easier then. It made sense. Shattered - he runs to a church, confesses to Buffy, and embraces a cross - crucifying himself. Seeking forgiveness from a power that will only burn him.

In Selfless, the focus shifts back on Anya, and to a degree Buffy herself. Anya has unleashed a crimsonlaw demon or spider demon that rips out and eats human hearts in response to a wish. A young girl was taken to a fraternity by her boyfriend, where he proceeded to break up with her in front of his friends and they all shared a nice laugh about it. Humilating the girl and metaphorically tearing out her heart. As the girl tells Willow, "I just wished that for once they'd know what it felt like to have their hearts torn out and that's when it came.  
It came and tore out their hearts. I take it back. I take it back." After it came, Anya is leaning against the wall, horrified and depressed at what she's done. What have I done, she asks. And as she washes the blood off her hands, the overlay is Spike's voice stating: "I don't trust what I see anymore..." It is a statement that applies to them both. Who are we?  
Demons?

The metaphor of the hearts being ripped out fits both Buffy and Xander, and to a degree Willow. Xander states to Anya in Entropy that he felt like he ripped his own heart out when he stood Anya up at the altar. That he feels empty inside, twisted. Which is also how Anya feels. Buffy also feels that way, in regards to four guys she dated. Angel - when he turned into Angelus, when she sent him to hell by pushing a sword through his chest, and when he leaves her for LA, and several other episodes after that (Angel metaphorically ripped Buffy's heart out about six times before she finally moved on). Parker - when he told her their relationship was just a nice roll in bed. Riley - when he went to the vamp whores then left Sunnydale for good. Only to return married with the perfect life. Spike - when he attempted to rape her. And Willow felt that way when OZ left, Tara left and Tara died - as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest. Spike too feels it or did after he attempted to rape Buffy, he even states it in Same Time Same Place - your heart falls out of your chest, you try to put it back in, wall off the bad parts, but it doesn't fit and it doesn't work and you are the same as you've always been.

You can't take it back. Or rather you can try but not without consequences. Anya wants to take back what she did. Xander wants Willow to mystically fix it. But as Buffy puts it, it is never that simple. And when Xander tells her she is making it simple, deciding quickly in the space of minutes to kill Anya, and that she has no idea how he is feeling and no respect for it. That's when Buffy throws a couple of hard truths in Xander's face:

"I killed Angel. I loved him more than anything I will ever love in this life. I would have given everything I had to be with him. But I killed him. And you told me to do it. You egged me on. You and Willow - you told me that Willow said to kick his ass."

Xander stands horrified at Buffy's words. Almost speechless. He tries to say it is different.  
That she has simplified it. That she's made the unilateral decision to shut them out again and do it her own way. But Buffy states it is never simple. You say I shut myself off from you, you have no idea what this is like. There are no rules, no guidelines, no all knowing Watcher Council. It comes down to me. I'm the law. She has the power and she doesn't want it.  
And she doesn't want to kill Anya.

Xander brings up Spike - a mass-murdering demon, with a chip, that you didn't kill because you were boning. Buffy counters - Spike was harmless. Xander - he had no choice. And here's the kicker - Buffy states - but Anya did! She chose to become a vengeance demon twice. She knew what she was doing and chose to anyway.

Yet, it's still not simple. Willow goes to Anya, before telling Buffy and Xander what Anya's did, and Anya defends herself. "They deserved it. Do you know what they did to that girl, how they humilated her..." Willow disagrees and disagrees that Anya truly feels that way. Anya throws Willow's own actions regarding Warren back in her face and Willow states no she has not forgotten what she did, she remembers it every day. After she did it, when she did it, she wanted to die. Just as Spike and Anya want to die after they did what they did.

Buffy and Xander confront Anya - and Xander attempts to stop Buffy, but Anya continues to push him aside. "Don't help me, Xander" - she tells him. And her reasons are mixed. "Don't feel for me." She wants to hate him. She also wants to be punished. Buffy fights Anya with a sword in much the same way she fought Angelus, and like Angel, she shoves a sword through Anya's chest and like Angel, Anya does not die. She bucks death - because vengeance doesn't die, it lives as long if not longer than we do. She is as she tells Halfrek in 1905, I am the embodiment of vengeance. Yet, now...it has lost its appeal. "Stop saving me, Xander." she shouts when stops Buffy from actually killing her. And that's when D'Hoffryn shows up, summoned by Willow - who states that she wants him to talk to Anya. She wants him to give Anya the choice.

And he does...he asks what Anya wants. And Anya wants to take it back. I want to take it back. Not that easy says D'Hoffryn. The scales need to be balanced. A life for a life. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. There are what 12 people dead in there? That's a hefty price. It will require the soul and life of a vengeance demon. And Anya assumes he means her, she assumes she can offer her own life up for the choice. But as D'Hoffryn states - I always told you Anya, don't go for the death, when you can go for the pain. And he takes Anya's best friend, the one constant in her life, Halfrek. And Anya is bowed with guilt. She no longer knows who she is. She's not Xander's girlfriend, she's not a vengeance demon, she's nobody. She feels like a nobody. What if that is all I am, she asks Xander.

This episode happens prior to the one where Buffy finally chooses to help Spike, stops seeing what Spike did and chooses to start looking past it, chooses to tell her friends that he has a soul now. She stops demonizing Spike, and demonizes what he did instead. Through Anya, Buffy starts to see how actions aren't always the person. She also becomes a little ambivalent about her calling...wondering if slaying is the correct course of action here. Is she any better than Anya? She tells herself she is.

Vengeance is a prevalent theme in the series. It is one in most films and tv shows. From the cathartic thrill of Quentin Tartino's vengeance fantasy blood-baths such as Kill Bill and Inglorious Bastards to the questioning and uncertainity depicted in Speilberg's oscar nominated film about the Isralie special police (which I can't remember the name of), Jodie Foster's The Brave One, Sigourney Weaver's Death and the Maiden, and Coppola's the Godfather triology. It's also a theme on tv - we see it in 24 as a cathartic release, and in BSG, as moral guagmire.

And it appears in religous text. Most religious leaders/prophets/gods preached against it, from Christ to Mohammhmad to Buddha. Jesus stated in many a parable and many a speech - to not demonize the actor, but the action. It is the action that must be vilified, not the person committing it. Vengeance as Joseph Conrad states rather brilliantly in Heart of Darkness will devour you whole and turn you into the very monster that you wish to kill. And that is literally what vengeance did to both Anya and Willow - it devoured them. It is vengeance that cursed Angel with a soul, and it is vengeance that made him lose it the moment he made love to Buffy. And in BattleStar Galatica, Admiral Kane literally destroys herself and her crew by embracing vengeance as their sole raison d'etre.

Vengeance twisted Aud into Anyanka. It twists Ronnie into a worm. What can forgiveness do? What is the power of the opposite? And is it really that simple? No. Of course not. Xander again is the voice of the everyman. And Buffy the echoing pov.

And back to the Kansas State Senate and the reinstitution of the death penalty..if you followed the link above, you would have discovered bits: since it's reinstatement, the death penalty has never been used in Kansas, the expense of it has almost bankrupt the state, and the Supreme Court of Kansas recently voted that statute was unconstitutional in how it handled prisoners. The enactment of the statute has ironically done more to hurt the state of Kansas and those who voted for it politically than the people it was originally meant to hurt. That's the thing about vengeance - when we seek it, it hurts us more than it hurts those we seek it against. IT is a bit like that mirror trick in Buffy S1, episode Witch, where Amy's mother does a vengeance spell against Buffy and Buffy flips the mirror - which causes Amy's mother to be encased forever in a cheerleadering trophy. Willow's desire for vengeance almost ate her alive, Anya's turned her into a demon...power abused to hurt others for one's own gratification. The writer seems to be saying here - vengeance, the seeking of it, and infliction of it, the demonization of the actor not the action - will hurt the seeker of vengeance more in the long run, by demonizing someone else, we run the risk of demonizing ourselves. When we lash out at others, we lash out at ourselves. The metaphorical mirror reflects it back at us. Anya rips out the hearts of the men, she rips out her own. Xander by imposing moral righteousness on Buffy in S2, finds it reflected back at him years later, but with a twist. Is Anya, Buffy states, any different than Spike or Angel? She's lived longer and wracked more violence and like Spike and Angel, bucked the system, did not die - vengeance has kept Anya alive. Is the fact it was done in the name of vengeance justify it? Can vengeance ever be justified?

Is what Buffy does the same as vengeance?

No. Not really. Any more than putting a man in jail for killing someone is. There is a difference between vengeance and protecting yourself. Protecting the world. And that is the line the writer seems to be attempting to define in this season, where is that line and what is the difference? How should we use our power? When are we abusing it? When aren't we?


End file.
